The Mets are making a push to land David Stearns to run their baseball operations department, a source told The Post.
The source said the Mets are “down the road” in negotiations with Stearns, which is the same term that was used in a report by The Athletic about talks between the club and the executive.
The source was not sure if the Mets are looking at Stearns to be president of the team or president of baseball operations, but clearly, they think his main role would be to come in above current general manager Billy Eppler as the main decision maker on baseball matters.
Stearns has long been viewed as the Mets’ top choice for this position.
They were interested in talking to him last offseason, but the Brewers would not allow Stearns to speak with the Mets because he had one year left on his contract.
Stearns stepped down as Milwaukee’s president of baseball operations in late October 2022, but stayed on in an advisory role during the last year of his contract.
The Athletic reported that once the Aug. 1 MLB trade deadline had passed, Stearns was permitted to engage with other organizations about employment,
Stearns, Brewers owner Mark Attanasio, Mets owner Steve Cohen and Eppler did not respond to text messages seeking comment on the subject.
The 38-year-old Stearns has been credited as the architect of a Brewers team that made the playoffs for four straight years, from 2018-21, matching the number of times the organization had previously reached the playoffs dating to its origins as the Seattle Pilots in 1969.
Milwaukee did not make it last season, missing out by one game after the controversial trade-deadline deal of closer Josh Hader to the Padres.
It is believed that Attanasio was not pleased by that deal and that, at least in part, led to Stearns’ decision to step away from the day-to-day running of the team.
Stearns was born and raised in Manhattan and grew up a Mets fan.
He worked for the organization early in his career after graduating from Harvard.
His big break, though, came as an executive for the Astros, for which he rose to assistant GM.
He met his wife, Whitney, in Houston and it is believed that Astros owner Jim Crane also has had an interest in bringing Stearns back to oversee baseball operations.
Cohen has been trying to hire a head of baseball operations, above the general manager title, for nearly three years.
He has been curtailed in the search for several reasons: being unable to talk to desirable candidates under contract, concerns by possible candidates about working for him and concerns about working in New York.
Eppler was hired as GM by Cohen after the 2021 season with the understanding that the Mets’ owner eventually would still hire someone above him to be the main baseball decision maker.